28th Sept (Tues) - Florence/ Pisa

So here I am, 2nd day in Florence. Florence's actually a pretty small city and almost all major attractions are within walking distance from Firenze S.M.N station - except for Piazzale Michaelangelo, which you have to take Bus 12 to get there and take in a bird's eye view of the city. So scrap the open bus tour if you can.






(For a bigger view of the landscape pix, click here ).

I was a sucker for it and went for it at 20€ for 2-day pass coz I was simply too tired to walk around. Well, it's coz of a very disturbing sleep I had at Napoli just before I came over to Florence. That's why. And that's another story altogether which I'm still very jittery about even now. I'll tell when that feeling subsides. In the meantime, here's the pix of the hostel which I'd stayed at - Archi Rossi Hostel. Pretty interesting and comfortable place :)



Anyway, it's been raining ever since I got here. The sky cleared for like only 2 hours earlier today. So, the initial perception I had of Florence was that it was just like any other Italian city - same old building architecture and looking dreary - except that it was quieter and less crowded. I couldn't see the charm behind it. But when the sky cleared for that 2 hours today, I'd a more enjoyable time walking down the streets and exploring the lanes to see the local going about their businesses - i.e.: small roadside shops, book stores and etc.







I began to reflect on what went wrong and deduced that because most of the buildings here have been here since the early 50s or 60s, they wore the dull and sometimes dirty yellow on their facade. So when it began to rain or became cloudy, the faded paint became even more depressing, making the atmosphere rather dreary.

But when the skies began to clear and the light shone through, it was a different story altogether. The yellow walls lit up to show a more cheerful side and helped to lift the whole city atmosphere. Even a stroll along the same riverside became much more brighter. But alas, today's my last day in the city. Damn the cranky weather for spoiling my mood to explore.







Aside, I'd made a trip to Pisa this morning and yup, saw the leaning tower. But after travelling for 1 hour from Firenze S.M.N station to Pisa Centrale (one way regional rail @ 5.80€) and after which, walked for 40 mins to get to the attraction, I was like "erhhh... ok. Not very majestic. Now that I've seen it, what should I do next?".



So, after much deliberation, I decided to walk the same way back to Pisa Centrale and caught the next train back to Firenze (Florence). 'COZ there was simply nothing else to look at or explore except for the leaning tower and the catedrals beside it. And I personally found it ridiculous and refused the idea to spend more money to go up the leaning tower - coz (1) it wasn't very tall (2) there's not much view of Pisa that you could get from there (3) it was raining on and off and (4) I was freaking starving.

And while I was waiting for the train back to Firenze, I tried to buy a snack from the vending machine on the platform but it didn't work. So I had to starve for an hour on my way back. But at least there was one good part to it - when I ejected the money, I got 1€ more due to a tech problem with the machine :)

And when I got back to Firenze, I went straight to McDonald's for comfort food (I'd enough of pastas and pizzas) and ordered a chicken McNuggets meal. Oh man, the nuggets were damn sucky. REALLY.

So there you go. I'm a grouchy traveller because of the stupid weather. ARGHHHHHHH!!!

After the short lunch break, I went on the bus tour again in search of the 'Asia Market' mini mart that I'd past by the day before - hoping to get my hands on some instant noodles in case of emergency. And I finally found it!



And I'd came across some interesting street signs & sights as well :P





Oh ya, almost forgot. While I was travelling to and fro Firenze-Pisa, I'd came across 4 different women at different times who handed out a request note to ask for money. The only difference in the women's notes were the number of children that they each had.